Based on the life of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, Prokofiev’s music to Eisenstein’s epic film Ivan the Terrible is among his finest achievements. The first part was accorded the dubious honour of a Stalin Prize, but when the Russian leader saw Part Two he was so overwhelmed by the appalling atrocities committed by Ivan in the name of political reform that he forbade its public screening.

This performance combines John Goberman's arrangement of Prokofiev's score with selected extracts from Eistenstein's 1944 movie.

Regrettably, there is no late entry point in the first half of this concert. Latecomers will only be admitted after the interval.